Venezuela held the world’s largest proven crude-oil reserves in the early 2020s.
Venezuela’s published reserve total is dominated by extra-heavy crude in the Orinoco Belt, a broad region in the country’s east. This oil is much denser than conventional light crude and generally requires specialized production, upgrading, blending, and refining infrastructure. The reserve ranking therefore does not directly measure production capacity or the ease of extracting the oil.
Saudi Arabia is frequently named in older references because it was long associated with the largest conventional reserves and remains one of the world’s leading producers. Canada also reports enormous reserves, but most are oil-sands resources. Reserve rankings can change as reporting standards, prices, technology, and assessments of recoverability change.
Venezuela’s production has been far below its reserve potential during periods of economic crisis, sanctions, underinvestment, and infrastructure problems. That distinction between reserves and output is essential when comparing petroleum countries.